Bio

John Heid is a senior public relations professional with corporate and agency experience in many B-to-B and B-to-C retail sectors, including insurance and financial services, agriculture, automotive and transportation, food and beverage, fuel service/CPG, healthcare, office supplies, and vehicle technology and electronics. He has also attained extensive experience with clients in the non-profit worlds during both in-house and agency roles.

As owner of John Heid PR, LLC, John focuses on helping businesses and non-profits create an awareness and publicity strategy, garner media attention and build donor bases. Since March 2025, he helped his clients earn more than 227 national, regional and local placements across multiple mediums that have reached a potential audience of more than 970 million.

John is a veteran storyteller and media strategist with strong media relations acumen. An experience media trainer, John owns relationships with all facets of media (broadcast, print, online) nationally and across more than 350 markets around the United States. He created and led Weber Shandwick’s local media list repository for nearly a decade.

During his career, John has developed and honed management skills to effectively lead cross-functional teams in execution of hundreds of multi-market and multi-platform campaigns that have resulted in more than 2,000 spokesperson interviews and over 20,415 media placements during in-house and agency roles. He’s personally secured over 13,415 media placements that include national outlets – Athlon Sports, Bloomberg, CBS News, CNN, FanSided.com, Fox News, Fox News Digital/FOX.com, The Wall Street Journal, UPI and Yahoo Sports! – news organizations from all the top 25 DMA markets and an additional 200 local markets.

• John has led national and regional teams for multi-national clients at the agency level, including McDonald’s, ExxonMobil, USAA Insurance, Staples, Royal Caribbean Group, Chubb Insurance, Verizon Telematics and Wireless, and Old Dominion Freight Line.

• During his nine-year agency career at Weber Shandwick, John also provided media strategy and support for Anheuser-Busch, Bayer Crop Science, Bayer Hawaii, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Coca-Cola, DraftKings, IBM, Novartis, Royal Caribbean, Stanley Black & Decker, Tork Paper, Varo Bank, Wellstar Health and more.

• As a result of his leadership of the Lee Street PR team supporting McDonald’s, the company brought John in to serve an embedded role as Field PR Manager for McDonald’s Field Offices in Atlanta, Dallas and Nashville that included 12 states in Q4 2023/Q1 2024.
• John led Weber’s Lee Street Team to three PRSA award nominations and three awards over a four-year span.
• An agriculture media expert, John led a multi-state grass roots campaign for Invest in Our Land to push for farm bill passage by the U.S. Congress.
• A former print and online journalist, John’s PR experience includes in-house leadership roles at Verizon Connect (formerly Verizon Telematics), Manheim Auto Auctions, The Allstate Foundation, Allstate Insurance Company’s Southeast Region and the Atlanta Thrashers NHL Hockey Club.
• The client list for John Heid PR, LLC includes Athletes in Action, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Built Technologies, Fellowship Christian School, Gas South District Arena, ToolBank USA and ToolBank USA’s Disaster Services division. He also serves as a consultant for Crackle PR, Klick Marketing and Wild Hive Marketing.